iPad Pro: Apple launches 'ultimate PC replacement'

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Apple has launched a smaller iPad Pro alongside a new iPhone during an event in California, in what the company claimed was the “greatest iPad upgrade ever”.

The new iPad Pro features a 9.7-inch pressure-sensitive display and four corner-mounted speakers, as does the larger iPad Pro which went on sale last November. Prices start at $599 for 32Gb and $749 for 128GB. UK pricing and availability has yet to be announced.

Speaking at the launch event at the company’s Cupertino headquarters, Apple executive Phil Schiller said more than 200 million 9.7-inch iPads have been sold.

new iPad pricing lineup

The new iPad is 25 per cent brighter than an iPad Air 2, which Schiller claimed was the brightest tablet available. “In many ways, this is the best displays we’ve ever built for an iPad,” he said. It sports an A9X processor for faster performance, making it more powerful than an Xbox 360, he added.

The new iPad Pro will also support the pressure-sensitive Apple Pencil stylus, which Schiller added was “the greatest accessory Apple has ever made”. It also sports a 12MP rear-facing iSight camera capable of shooting 4K video, and 5MP front-facing lens.

The new iPad Pro will come in gold, silver, space grey and rose gold, for the first time.

Apple also announced a new 4-inch iPhone, the iPhone SE, designed for customers who don’t necessarily want to upgrade to Apple’s new larger cycle of models, sized at 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches.

The 4-inch iPhone SE marks a return to the sizing last used for the iPhone 5s in 2013, coupled with the 12MP rear-facing camera and near-field communication (NFC) chip used in last September’s recent release the iPhone 6s. The chip works in conjunction with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner in the home button to make contactless payments via Apple Pay.

Apple is set to meet the FBI in a federal court tomorrow, as it continues to fight a judge ruling for the company to aid the bureau in creating a ‘backdoor’ into an iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who killed 14 people in the San Bernardino shooting last December.